Title: Technology and Consumers’ Experiences in Fashion Physical Stores: The Case of Sweden

Level: Master Thesis in Business Administration

Author: Meron Kebede Abebaw; Willard Kingstone Matukuta

Supervisor: Agneta Sundström, PhD

Examiner: Maria Fregidou-Malama, PhD

Date: May, 2018

Aim: The aim of this study is to analyze whether in-store digital technology in fashion retailers are used to change the customers’ shopping experience and behavior.

Method: This study chooses qualitative research and used both primary and secondary data collection as method.

Results and conclusions: This study have reached to conclude that: with the current advances in technology, physical stores can use in-store technology to give customers a new experience; physical stores perceive that using in-store digital technology will change customers shopping experience. Also, marketing mix inputs and technology affect customers’ behavior.

Suggestions for future research: For future research, how smart fitting rooms may influence the customer experience in the physical store will be important to study. Researchers can also consider understanding customer responses to in-store technology. Finally, a customer’s perspective to both suggestions should improve the knowledge on whether digital solutions are preferred in in-store shopping or not.

Contributions of the thesis: This thesis contributes to the current state of theories on in-store technology by showing atmosphere has effect on customers’ experiences and behavior in addition to the marketing mix. On the managerial perspective, analyzing the installation of this technology will enable to identify its effect on customers’ experiences and behavior. In addition, on the societal perspective, the behavior of customers will help in motivating younger generation to utilize this in-store technology.

The main aim is to test if Piotroskis F_SCORE applied on stocks with high book-to- market ratio outperforms the market portfolio and therefore determine the level of market efficiency. The secondary aim is to provide knowledge to business executives about the relevance of a book-to-market policy.

Method

This study is a quantitative research which assumes a positivistic research philosophy with a deductive approach. Several regression analyses have been used to confirm the statistical significance of the different estimated parameters. The empirical results give answers to two hypotheses based on the aim of this research. The empirical data have been collected from Thomson Reuter Datastream, compiled in Excel and analyzed with the statistical software Stata.

Result & Conclusions

The empirical results of this study show that the value portfolio has a higher return than the market index. The risk-adjusted return for the value portfolio is higher compared to the market portfolio. This indicates that the higher return of the value portfolio is not due to a higher risk. By the results of this study there is not possible to determine whether the market is fully efficient or not. It is only possible to exclude the strong and semi-strong form of market efficiency.

Suggestions for future research

For future studies, we suggest further research about the weak form of market efficiency. Using historical data to determine future return, as Contrarian model, is one suggestion to reach further evidence of market (in)efficiency. Since F_SCORE assumes a normal distribution and because of the poor performance of the low F_SCORE firms another suggestion is short-sell these stocks to see if the return ca be increased. This empirical field needs further research about which factors that causes the higher return for these stocks. The small firm effect, liquidity and behavioral finance are just a few anomalies that may have a relationship with excess return.

Contribution of the thesis

The investment strategy in this research shows a higher excess return compared to the market index as well as a higher risk-adjusted return over the given period. This is not only a contribution to investors but also in a theoretical field due to the efficient market hypothesis. F_SCORE have a normal distribution curve where the stocks with F_SCORE of 5 or higher generally have a higher mean return. Another contribution is the relevance of book to market ratio as a useful strategy for valuating companies. The practical contribution gives business executives better understanding about the relevance of a book-to-market policy when attracting investors.

Society awareness of environmental issues has recently increased, which also led to the increase in demand for sustainability reporting. This has in turn resulted in the number of sustainability report becoming more and more recent. Sustainability reports are therefore usually very long and complex as the stakeholder’s needs are wide and large. Since these reports have not previously been integrated with the financial information of the company, this is something that should be done and therefore results in so-called integrated reporting. IR is a way for companies to report their value creation in the short, medium and long term. The purpose of IR is to expand traditional approaches to managing the various capital and business model that affect value creation. Based on this, the purpose on the study has been developed, which is to analyse how companies report value creation by applying the framework The International <IR> Framework.The study has a positivist point of departure and a major qualitative research strategy but with some quantitative elements in which a deductible research effort has been applied. The empirical material of the study has been collected from integrated reports and presented by diagram. The analysis has been carried out by data against previous research. The study's results show that business models affect the company's presentation of the value creation and that the International <IR> Framework is applied more and more when companies report a lot of capital. This result shows that it is in line with previous research and that the content element business model is a useful tool for reporting value creation. Suggestions for further research is to investigate why many companies do not link their business model with value creation though this study shows that the business model is useful tool for reporting value creation. Further, it would also be interesting to conduct a similar study when The International <IR> Framework has established itself and then study whether there are any significant differences.

University of Gävle, Faculty of Health and Occupational Studies, Department of Occupational and Public Health Sciences, Occupational health science. University of Gävle, Centre for Musculoskeletal Research.

Vilhelmson, Pär

University of Gävle, Faculty of Education and Business Studies, Department of Business and Economic Studies, Business administration.

Macassa, Gloria

University of Gävle, Faculty of Health and Occupational Studies, Department of Occupational and Public Health Sciences, Public health science.

Larsson, Johan

University of Gävle, Faculty of Health and Occupational Studies, Department of Occupational and Public Health Sciences, Occupational health science. University of Gävle, Centre for Musculoskeletal Research.

The development of public housing companies in Sweden is strongly influenced by legal, economic, and demographic changes. The companies long tradition of taking responsibility for customer welfare in living have recently been criticized for excessive dominance over price setting, which is claimed to give them competitive advantages in the housing market. New legislation in 2011 requires financial return on investment, implying increased competition with radical changes for the companies. Because of the law, they find themselves transitioning from the role of being responsible for living conditions in Sweden to having to work in a businesslike manner with increased competition.The purpose of this dissertation is to analyze how the public housing companies’ deal with market orientation constructs and what their impact is on construction strategy choices. Theoretically, the market orientation concept is seen as a tool for companies to create superior value for the customers and influence strategic performance, which is a relationship tested and analyzed in this dissertation.The research was conducted through data collection stages using qualitative and quantitative methods. In the first stage, a qualitative pilot study was conducted with interviews of 15 managers in 11 public housing companies in central Sweden. In the second stage, two quantitative comparative studies of public and private housing companies in declining markets in central Sweden were conducted, collecting data from 23 (22 survey respondents) public and 37 private housing companies (16 respondents). In the third and final stage, two quantitative studies were conducted, collecting data from all 289 public housing companies (165 respondents) in Sweden.Results of the five studies show, firstly, that economic condition in the municipality have a major impact on the housing companies’ construction strategies, causing them to act innovatively in order to create superior customer value. Secondly, market orientation efforts contribute to competitive advantages in growing markets, while weak economic conditions limit the companies’ construction strategy choices in declining markets. After analyzing the link between market orientation constructs and construction strategy in declining markets, results showed that the public housing companies demonstrate higher responsiveness to customer demands compared to the private sector, but these have no effects on construction strategy. Thirdly, the analysis of moderating (external) and mediating (corporate social responsibility) effects on the market orientation and construction strategy relationship confirms that economic conditions in society influence construction strategy planning and decisions. The results of the mediating effects of CSR indicate that environmental and social issues have a positive influence on the market orientation and construction strategy relationship.

7.

Ahmadi, Zahra

et al.

University of Gävle, Faculty of Education and Business Studies, Department of Business and Economic Studies, Business administration.

Lind, Hans

chool of Architecture and the Built Environment, KTH, Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, Sweden.

The purpose of this study is first to examine and comparesustainable strategies within public and private housing companies in decliningmarkets in central Sweden. Then, the study evaluates the impact of newlegislation that requires public housing companies to act in a ‘businesslike’way, in the same way as a long-term private company. A quantitative studywas conducted based on a survey sent to 72 housing companies. The resultsshow that public housing companies are more strategy oriented than privatehousing companies. The results can be viewed as an on-going interactionprocess, where a company’s strategies affect its profit. The study aims toincrease the understanding of activities within housing companies in adeclining market that engage the companies in sustainable strategies toimprove their market knowledge and profit.

This study examines how companies in declining markets operate in the context of market intelligence, responding to customer needs and applying them tostrategic performance. A quantitative survey was sent to 214 public housing companies. The results indicate that market intelligence creates commitment and is significant. A positive relationship was found between data gathering, dissemination, and responsiveness, which indicates that the companies comprehend market needs but companies have difficult to manage construction strategies that improve strategic performance. There was a low value of strategic performance; a link between market intelligence and the chosen strategy was not confirmed. Companies know what the market wants but base their decision on previous strategic performanceon economic conditions in the municipality instead.

9.

Ahmadi, Zahra

et al.

University of Gävle, Faculty of Education and Business Studies, Department of Business and Economic Studies, Business administration.

Sundström, Agneta

University of Gävle, Faculty of Education and Business Studies, Department of Business and Economic Studies, Business administration.

Aim: The aim of this study was to investigate how national culture influence internal communication of university.

Methodology: A qualitative approach was chosen to conduct this research. Semi structured interview were taken. Interviews were taken by face to face, skype and phone call. Ethical approach was considered while interpreting the data.

Findings:

Our study showed that high power distance has negative impact on internal communication. We found that high power distance creates block between supervisors and subordinates to share information. Thus it creates barriers for effective communication flow and hinders organizations development. Our study also found that power distance is available in both countries but the degree of power distance is varied from one to another. In our study we also found that Individualism and collectivism has effect on internal communication. Our study showed that Individualistic or collectivistic decision making process of university effect internal communication of university in both countries. Previous study suggests that high power distance country tends to be a collectivistic country. Though the result is not always true. However, we found that true in our study.

Contribution: The study adopts employee centric approach to explore the effects of culture on internal communication. This is an important contribution to previous researches that focused on internal communication from different perspectives, inclusion of cultural differences on internal communication has added value to the research field. Moreover, this paper contributes insights in cultural differences as well as employee perspective and by doing so it suggests theorist and practitioners that how internal communication can relate to employee’s engagement in different cultural perspectives.

Limitations: The major limitation of this study was that this study only focused on Hofstede’s power distance and individualism as cultural dimensions. Other dimensions were not focused. Another limitation of this study was the sample size. The sample size is too small to represent the whole population in regards to university perspective.

Suggestions for further research: Additional qualitative or quantitative methods can be required to explore the findings in different aspects. The study focuses on the educational institute. The findings may vary in accordance with the different industry and sectors. The study provides the guidelines regarding the impact of cultural differences on internal communication. Future research could consider other important factors that may have profound impact on internal communication in different settings.

Aim: The aim of the study is to explore the relationship between leadership and organizational culture in a financial organization. The study has been conducted in Handelsbanken, Sweden.

Method: The study is based on ten qualitative interviews with managers and employees in Handelsbanken, Mid-Sweden offices. We used inductive approach by comparing findings with existing theory.

Result & Conclusions: Leadership depends mostly on corporate values and individuals´ personalities within SHB. We noticed predominantly notion of transformational leadership, consisting of democratic, empowering and participative leadership. SHB´s corporate culture is strong and cohesive, resembling mostly guided missile type of culture. We argue that leadership and corporate culture affect each other, in case of Swedish Handelsbanken through employee motivation and empowerment and internal recruitment and development of future managers.

Suggestions for future research: We suggest a study where the possible existence of transactional and laissez faire leadership could be proven within a financial organization as well as studies on other types of corporate culture and conducting similar studies within financial organizations to make comparisons between the organizations.

Contribution of the thesis: This study contributes to theoretical knowledge development about leadership and corporate culture and the interconnection between them within a financial organization, as presented in case of Handelsbanken, Mid-Sweden offices.

Level: Final assignment for Bachelor Degree in Business Administration

Author: Sanna Almqvist and Pernilla Wiberg

Supervisor: Tomas Källquist

Date: 2018 – january

Aim: The background to this study is based on previous research highlighting different aspects of the benefit of performance measurement from a leader or company perspective. But they request more research on how employees attitude to performance measurements leads to engagement. Our aim is thus to increase understanding of how employees' attitude towards performance measurements within customer satisfaction engages them in their daily work to strive towards long-term goals and strategies.

Method: This study is influenced by a hermeneutic and social constructionist perspective. The empirical data has been collected through qualitative semistructured interviews. The interviews were covered by topics that were found in theoretical framework based on previous research on the subject. Through an abductive research method, empirical data and the theoretical frame of reference have been analyzed in interaction and influenced each other in order to answer the aim of the study.

Conclusions: The conclusion of the study is that a positive attitude toward measurements within customer satisfaction, engage employees in everyday work. The study also points to that different involvement of employees leads to the pursuit of different kinds of goals.

Contribution of the thesis: This study, from a theoretical point of view, contributes to illustrating employees' attitude to customer satisfaction measurements, as well as their perspective on linking performance measurement with long-term goals and strategies. Furthermore, previous research in employee engagement is also confirmed.

Suggestions for future research: The study reveals that it would be interesting for further research to illustrate similarities and differences within the two different traces of customer satisfaction measurements found in this study, indirect and direct measurements of customer satisfaction.

This study analyses the relationship between the state’s political ideologies and the implementation of cost management strategies during the re-privatisation of a public sector organisation. Drawing on the Dillard et al.’s (2004) conceptual framework, we conducted a case study in a public sector organisation operating in the electricity market of Egypt. Data was gathered through document analysis, interviews, meetings observations and continuous interactions with key informants from 2013 to 2014. The findings show that the implementation of cost management strategies had a political basis, grounded in the state’s reformative ideologies concerning re-privatisation of the public sector organisation. The re-privatisation failed because the state failed to convince a potential international investor. A theoretical contribution is to show the relevance of cost management strategies when used as a political tool to achieve a business goal, such as improving a public sector organisation’s performance management in a developing country. This is the first empirical case study to analyse management accounting change based on the state’s political ideologies in the Maghreb region of Africa. The key difference between this global trend elsewhere and in the Egyptian State, as in some other Islamic countries, is that Egypt was both nationalistic and militarised.

Aim: Previous research highlights the factors of control and independence as important for SMEs' choice of capital structure. However, their is a lack of research including decision makers which creates deeper understanding how and why decision makers in SMEs are affected.

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to illustrate how decision makers in SMEs handle the problem of capital structure with regard to control and independence factors.

Method: The study is based in an actor’s view with influences from hermeneutics and social constructionism. The research approach is abductive based on the shifting between theoretical and empirical reflection. The empirical material has been gathered through semi-structured interviews. The theoretical framework is based on previous research with regards on a constructive approach. The approach is to seek out the respondents' perspective on society and not objective facts based on a narrative analysis.

Contribution: This study illustrates that control and independence affect decision makers during the investment process and in their choice of funding. The study suggests that decision makers refer to maintain control and independence by making decisions themselves and thus controlling the investment. The result highlights that speed and agility affect decision makers choice of funding with regards to control and independence factors. The study also highlights that decision makers in SMEs do not assume any set of capital structure and therefore differ from previous research.

Aim: Female directors are one internal driver of sustainability commitment. Board system and litigation risk may influence the relationship between female directors and sustainability performance. Previous research hasn’t taken risk and board system into account, which we intend to do. The aim of this study is to examine the relationship between the proportion of female directors and sustainability performance in European companies.

Method: The study adopts a positivist research philosophy with deductive approach. A quantitative research strategy with cross-sectional design are used, therefore we draw on secondary data from Asset4 for the year 2015. The sample amounts to 2123 European companies whose data have been analyzed in SPSS and presented in charts and figures.

Result & conclusions: The study finds a significant positive relationship between the proportion of female directors and sustainability performance. Two-tier system and low litigation risk contribute to the impact female directors have on sustainability performance.

Suggestions for future research: The board culture is important for the studied relationship. Therefore, similar studies that take the arena of the board into account would be valuable. To determine causality between female directors and sustainability performance, we suggest longitudinal research. Further studies in selected European countries are proposed to clarify the importance of gender quotas to sustainability performance.

Contribution of the thesis: Our study expands the literature of business administration about the relationship between female directors and sustainability performance in companies with two-tier system and low litigation risk. The study has implications for stakeholders and the discussion about gender quotas.

Level: Final assignment for Bachelor Degree in Business Administration

Author: Filip Andersson och Marcus Fred

Supervisor: Daniella Fjellström och Signe Jernberg

Date: 2017 - August

Aim: The aim of this study is to create an understanding of how employees use the intranet to obtain explicit knowledge

Method: This study is based on a hermeneutic perspective. The gathering of empirical material is based on a qualitative research method in form of semi-structured interviews. The theoretical framework is based on prior research within the Knowledge Management field. An interview guide has been formed based on the theoretical framework, the empirical result is therefor based on the interview guide. A thematic analyze is used where themes have been created out of the empirical results.

Result & Conclusions: The study shows that employees mostly are using the intranet to obtain explicit knowledge in connection to recurrent problems and questions related to work.

Suggestions for future research: Limitations of the study are based on the problems with the generalizability connected to the semi-structured interviews that are done within one company. More research in a bigger context needs to be done.

Contribution of the thesis: This study contributes with a more compelling theory when it comes to the usage of the intranet to obtain explicit knowledge. As well as a updated view on relevant models connected to the knowledge transfer research.

Level: Student thesis, final assignment for Bachelor Degree in Business Administration

Author: Anita Johansson and Rikard Andersson

Supervisor: Jan Svanberg

Date: 2018 – may

Aim: The purpose of this study was to investigate whether intangible assets constitute the missing link in the bidirectional relationship between CSP and CFP. The aim was also to investigate if the growth phase affects the strength of the relationship.

Method: The study assumes a positivistic research philosophy with a hypothetical-deductible approach. Secondary data have been collected from the database Thomson Reuters. Time perspective that has been used is called longitudinal design using data from eleven years and this data has been analyzed in SPSS.

Result & Conclusions: The result provides evidence that intangible assets act as a partial mediator of the positive bidirectional relationship between CSP and CFP. However, the impact of intangible assets in the bidirectional relationship between CSP and CFP depending on growth phase does not show any evident result and cannot be established.

Contribution of the thesis: The study provides proof that there is a mediating effect from the intangible assets of the bidirectional relationship between CSP and CFP. Even though our result of growth as a variable is not strengthened, this can be the basis for further research and, in spite of everything, has contributed to more knowledge. Our results contribute to the theoretical knowledge that future research can build on while corporate executives can invest in intangible assets while achieving financial goals.

Suggestions for future research: One suggestion for future research is to include private companies who are missing public sustainable reporting. If another selection is included, it can make the result more justified. Since our study did not bring an evident result about the impact of the growth phase it would have been interesting if further research could be a comparative study. Since it takes time to build up intangible assets a comparison between the same companies during a period of high growth to a period of stagnant growth, could show a more evident result of the impact of the intangible assets.

Aim: Previous research has shown a lack of use of sustainability reports in the analysis process, which can be assigned to distrust in the information and a lack of criteria for the evaluation of information. Therefore, the aim of this study is to understand which criteria financial analysts demand in sustainability reports. The aim is also to illustrate whether a regulation can meet the needs of financial analysts.

Method: The study adopts a hermeneutic perspective and the research gap that’s being studied is considered to be characterized by social constructivism. By taking part in an abductive research our theory and empiricism approach together through an iterative process. The study applies a qualitative research where empirical data are collected through interviews. The theoretical framework is constructed of previous research and the same themes and headlines runs throughout both empirical and analytical sections.

Result & Conclusions: The results of the study suggest that it isn’t possible to apply the same kind of reporting and key performance indicators in sustainability reports as used in the financial statements. A sustainability report is aimed more towards qualitative key indicators, which isn’t always possible to measure and compare. The main criteria for sustainability information prove to be relevance, which we can see is one of the causes for the demand of industry-specific key indicators.

Suggestions for future research: Sustainability reporting is still a relatively new phenomenon in the world of finance, and several of the respondents believe in the rapid development in sustainable thinking and the possibility of developing key indicators in the field. This means that it would be interesting to do a similar study at a later time to see the development of industry-specific standards and indicators of sustainability.

Contribution of the thesis: The study's contributions relate to the practice, understanding that sustainability information and financial information can’t be read in the same way, that other methods should be used for sustainability information. This study shows how sustainable information should be valued and refer to various interest groups together with the companies to jointly come up with various industry-specific standards. These we believe would facilitate the execution of sustainability reporting, but also how it should be read for the best application.

Aim: The reporting of an organizations going concern has been center for debate during a long period of time. This is mainly due to auditing scandals where organizations have gone bankrupt without a modified going concern opinion from their auditor. In accounting literature there are conflicting claims about whether auditors are considered independent or not due to their tendency to issue a going concern modified opinion and the influence financial incentives have on auditor independence.

The aim of this essay is to: Examine if there is a relation between the tendency to issue a going concern modified opinion and the financial loss for the audit firm.

Method: From previous research hypotheses have been deduced. These hypotheses have then empirically been studied. A quantitative method was used to gather data from Swedish companies’ annual reports from the year 2011-2014. After gathering the data, it was tested and analyzed with a stats program and then presented in different tables.

Result & Conclusions: This study has found evidence of the self-fulfilling prophecy, which indicates that the auditor withdraws from issuing a going concern modified opinion. Regarding the financial incentives as threats of audit independence, this study gives evidence that the size of Non-audit service fees poses a potential threat. The results of the study also show that there is no significant difference in quality between Big 4 and Non-Big 4 auditors regarding the issuance of going concern modified opinions.

Suggestions for future research: In this study the financial factors have been taken into account, a combination of both the financial and non-financial factors is the suggestion for future research. A third limitation of this study is that is based upon the auditors’ perspective, therefore a study based solely on the companies' perspective or a combination of both is our suggestion for future research.

Contribution of the thesis: This thesis contributes with more knowledge to the accounting literature. The study has provided more knowledge about the self-fulfilling prophecy, financial incentives on audit independence and the quality among Big 4 and non-Big 4 audit firms. This thesis has also contributed to further understanding of how problematic it can be for an auditor to issue a going concern modified opinion.

Aim: The purpose of this study is to investigate how the target companies’ runup affects thetakeover premium in mergers and acquisitions based on the substitution and markup pricing hypothesis.

Method: The study has a deductive approach in which an event study has been applied to collectrelevant secondary data from the databases Thomson Reuters Eikon and Zephyr. To study the relationship between the acquisition premium and the target company’s runup a simple regression analysis has been conducted and to study the influence of explanatory variables on runup a multiple regression analysis has been applied.

Result & Conclusions: The study’s results show that there is a relationship between runup and the takeover premiums. Based on the substitution and markup pricing hypothesis, the study shows that if runup increases by 1 % the takeover premium increases by 0.879 % which means that an increase in the target company's runup is a cost to the acquiring company.

Suggestions for future research: Suggestions for further research are to study more explanatory variables for a target company's runup and study volume differences in trading of the target company's shares the days prior to bid announcement on the Swedish market to see if the results differ from previous research and other markets.

Contribution of the thesis: The study’s results contribute knowledge that can explain the variation in takeover premiums and knowledge that a target company’s runup in an acquisition is a cost for the acquiring company.

Problem: Development of a firm’s offering is a vital weapon for competition. Obtaining knowledge on customer expectations and translating those into product development and superior service delivery is surrounded by prioritisation decisions. Industrial vending systems are proven to be a growing field in terms of deployments but have received little academic attention, especially regarding service quality perception to support customer-oriented innovation processes for suppliers, facilitating such decisions.

Purpose: To identify key drivers of positive service quality perception and customer satisfaction as well as trust and commitment indicators for business-to-business industrial vending systems.

Method: Through an explanatory approach, qualitative data on multiple cases was gathered. 14 in-depth semi-structured interviews were held with customers currently using a specific industrial vending system.

Conclusion: Solution characteristics of industrial vending systems impact service quality perception through compliance with customer requirements. A total of 13 customer satisfaction drivers were identified for the investigated industrial vending system, the most important being efficiency, user-friendliness and timeliness. Further, the presence of individual- and company level trust in customer-supplier relationships positively impacts commitment intentions.

Contribution: Adds novel knowledge on customer satisfaction for industrial vending systems and contributes with suggestions for managers on how trust and commitment affect customer satisfaction, which can be incorporated into the value promise design, product development and marketing strategies.

Title: CSR-performance and cost of equity capital – a quantitative study of 548 European companies

Aim: The subject of how corporate social responsibility affects the company’s financial performance has been discussed for a long time, which has contributed to conflicting results. This study has applied cost of equity capital in order to measure financial performance. By considering corporate social responsibility as a transparency effect, which increases firms’ transparency, this study wants to examine if corporate social responsibility can minimize the company’s perceived risk to decrease cost of equity capital.

Method: The study has applied a positivist research philosophy and a deductive research approach with setting of hypotheses. We used a quantitative research method where the secondary data was collected from Thomson Reuters DataStream. The sample of the study includes 548 companies from eight European countries. The collected data has been processed and analyzed in the statistical program called SPSS and JASP.

Result & Conclusions: Our results prove that a positive respective negative relationship between corporate social responsibility and cost of equity exists depending on nation.

Suggestions for future research: One suggestion for further research is to investigate why the relationship between corporate social responsibility and cost of equity appears different in nations.

Contribution of the thesis: This study contributes to an increased understanding for how corporate social responsibility can affect the company’s cost of equity capital in a European context. The study have contributed to a new research turn concerning how corporate social responsibility can work as a transparency effect too reduce the firms cost of equity capital. It provides further acknowledge on the relationship between corporate social responsibility and financial performance which in previous research shows conflicting results.

Aim: E-HR is an enterprise management system where digital tools are used to manage the human resources of the organisation. Previous research argues that there is a lack of research on the use of e-HR from the employee perspective and also with a focus on how the relationships are affected. The aim of the study is thus to increase understanding of how employees experience the use of e-HR and what effects digitization may have on the relationships in the organisation.

Method: The study assumes a hermeneutic perspective with inspiration from the operator approach. The research program has an abductive focus in which a qualitative research design has been used with ten semistructured interviews.

Result & Conclusions: The study shows that e-HR tools are perceived as a valuable support at work, but sometimes with increased workload. Furthermore, the study shows that the relationships have been influenced only to a small extent by e-HR and mainly because communication in larger part is done digitally. The study although shows that digital HR can not replace the personal meeting.

Suggestions for future research: The study could have been developed even more if the management had been interviewed about the motivation for current digital HR tools. This to study the manager's experiences of the current solutions, but also to see if they have concidered other options. We therefore consider that further research could provide contributions by studying the subject also from the manager's perspective, as there is also a lack of research about their perspective.

Contribution of the thesis: The theoretical contribution of the study is that e-HR increases the sense of safety and control, but that digitizing can also increase workload. The study also shows that a digital relationship is seen as an opportunity to get a relationship with a larger number of employees within the organization. The practical contribution is the advice to focus on education of the systems as well as to have back-up when the technology fails. The practical contribution of the study also applies to the fact that more organizations should consider using e-HR as a way to gather all the relevant information about the employees in one place.

Aim: The aim of the study is to from the employee’s perspective create an increased understanding of the relationship between the organizational identity and the employee´s trust in its leader.

Method: Since the aim of the study is to increase the understanding of how organizational identity and trust for the leader is experienced a qualitative method have been chosen. For the data collection semi-structured interviews have been used and the ten persons who have been interviewed are employed as real-estate agents in Stockholm, Gävle and Sandviken. The material has later been analyzed through a thematic analysis and the results have been presented and discussed.

Result & Conclusions: The study's results demonstrate that the employee’s trust in their local leaders affect their identification with the organization as well as the organizational identity. Furthermore, the study indicates that identification and the organizational identity influence each other.

Aim: Previous research has indicated that share repurchases result in a positive abnormal return on company's share price but only a few studies have examined further if return on share price differs depending on frequency of share repurchases. In Sweden share repurchases are quite unresearched field of study and after share repurchases became legal in 2000 there has been a financial crisis. This study aims to fulfil the research gap in Sweden and examine share repurchases' effect to return on share prices depending on frequency of share repurchase on Swedish stock market. Time period of the study has narrowed down to recession between years 2010-2014 to see eventual difference from time before recession.

Method: To fulfil the aim of the study event study methodology has been used. The share data for companies that have repurchased shares in chosen time period has been collected from Nasdaq OMX Stockholm. Based on share data cumulative abnormal returns for every share repurchase group have been calculated to compare groups and different time periods. Cumulative abnormal returns are even used to accomplish t-test and one-way ANOVA. Data of the study consist of 68 share repurchase programs that were announced by 41 companies. Those 68 repurchase programs were distributed to three frequency based groups that were ”1”, ”2-3” and ”4-5” share repurchase programs.

Result & Conclusions: Results of the study are consistent with the previous research about share repurchases resulting in a positive abnormal return. The results are also consistent with the previous research about repurchases signaling an undervalued stock which leads to an increase in interests from the investors. On the contrary this study is not consistent with the previous research about repurchase frequency and recession's impact to return. Because there are only a few studies about repurchasing frequency and recession's impact to return and the results of studies are contradictory, more research needs to be done.

Contribution of the thesis: It is interesting to see which kind of effect share repurchases result in share price when company is utilizing authorization of share repurchase program. This study indicates that a company in Sweden can predict a positive abnormal return by announcing about repurchase program. The study indicates even that repurchase frequency and recession's impact to return are still uncertain.

Suggestions for future research: As this study has only examined share repurchases' short-term effect to return on share price, it would be interesting to research long-term effect to return on share price. Also characteristics of companies that repurchase shares and eventual differences between companies that repurchase shares frequent and infrequent would be interesting to see.

The aim of this study is to examine a possible correlation between the proportion of women on corporate boards and firm risk in an unlisted Swedish corporation. Recent studies have focused on listed companies, and whether there is a correlation between the proportion of women on corporate boards and financial risk respectively business risk. These two measures of risk together defines as firm risk. How women effect firm risk is therefore by interest to investigate further.

This study is computed with a positivistic approach through statistical tests and analysis to discover an eventual correlation between the proportion of women on corporate boards and firm risk in an unlisted Swedish corporation. All empirical data is collected from the database Retriever

The results of this study show that the proportion of women on corporate boards correlates with the firm, financial- and business risk correlates in Swedish unlisted corporations. Whether the results actually show a greater impact in practice can be further discussed. The contribution of this study is therefore that the gender diversification does not impact the firm risk in Swedish unlisted corporations.

For future studies we suggest to do more research on how the time aspect impact the relation between women on corporate boards and firm risk. As a suggestion, the age of the corporations can be examined, since this factor had the greatest impact on the risk measures.

Aim: The aim of the study is to examine trust development in international marketing of financial services marketing of the National Investor (TNI) in UAE and Egypt. To achieve this, the researchers adapted Fregidou_Malama and Hyder (2015) framework of international services marketing that explains cultural influences on Adaptation/Standardization, network and trust formation in international services marketing.

Method: A single case study approach is used as the research strategy and qualitative research using semi-structured interviews. The research uses qualitative interviews as the primary source of empirical data.

Results and Conclusion: This study indicates that cultural values play a major role on the way people communicate, interact and conduct their businesses within the financial services sector in UAE and Egypt, and that cultural values, origins, policies, rules and regulations are factors that can affect how international companies build trust relationships within local cultures. Our results show that cultural dimensions such as power distance, individualism/collectivism, uncertainty avoidance, and masculinity/feminity affect trust building, networking and adaptation strategies in international marketing of financial service of the company.

Research Contribution: This study contributes and shows the implication of the need for adaptation to satisfy customers’ needs and expectations in international marketing of financial services. The United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Egypt have almost identical cultural dimensions, in order to build trust, TNI adapts its services to meet up with the Egyptian customers' needs and expectations. In addition, all of the previous studies that were conducted using Fregidou_Malama and Hyder (2015) framework are in the marketing of healthcare services of Elekta AB, Sweden whereas this study focuses on financial services and also conducted and compared two identical national cultures from two different countries and their influence.

Suggestions for Future Research: One of the limitations of this research is that it is a case study and doesn’t reflect the overall international financial sector and therefore the results and observations indicated in this research might differ along with the variation of the studied environment. Therefore, we recommend further study using the same model within the same financial service sector and the same business environment and compare with any European nation that is culturally distant from the United Arab Emirates and Egypt.

University of Gävle, Faculty of Education and Business Studies, Department of Culture Studies, Religious Studies and Educational Sciences, Cultural studies.

Söderhäll, BengtUniversity of Gävle, Faculty of Education and Business Studies, Department of Culture Studies, Religious Studies and Educational Sciences, Curriculum studies.Vilhelmson, PärUniversity of Gävle, Faculty of Education and Business Studies, Department of Business and Economic Studies, Business administration.

University of Gävle, Faculty of Education and Business Studies, Department of Culture Studies, Religious Studies and Educational Sciences, Cultural studies.

Söderhäll, BengtUniversity of Gävle, Faculty of Education and Business Studies, Department of Culture Studies, Religious Studies and Educational Sciences, Curriculum studies.Vilhelmson, PärUniversity of Gävle, Faculty of Education and Business Studies, Department of Business and Economic Studies, Business administration.

University of Gävle, Faculty of Education and Business Studies, Department of Culture Studies, Religious Studies and Educational Sciences, Cultural studies.

Söderhäll, BengtUniversity of Gävle, Faculty of Education and Business Studies, Department of Culture Studies, Religious Studies and Educational Sciences, Curriculum studies.Vilhelmson, PärUniversity of Gävle, Faculty of Education and Business Studies, Department of Business and Economic Studies, Business administration.

University of Gävle, Faculty of Education and Business Studies, Department of Culture Studies, Religious Studies and Educational Sciences, Cultural studies.

Söderhäll, BengtUniversity of Gävle, Faculty of Education and Business Studies, Department of Culture Studies, Religious Studies and Educational Sciences, Curriculum studies.Vilhelmson, PärUniversity of Gävle, Faculty of Education and Business Studies, Department of Business and Economic Studies, Business administration.

Aim: The aim of this study is to test the relationship between ownership concentration and dividends in listed Swedish firms.

Method: This study has a quantitative method and a deductive approach. The financial data has been collected via the database ”Retriever”, information about the ownership of the companies was manually collected from the book ”Ägarna och makten” (Sundqvist, 2015).

Result and conclusions: The result of the study is that dividends may variate due to the independent variables. However, there is not a significant relationship between ownership concentration and dividends.

Contribution of the thesis: The contribution of this study provides further information regarding ownership concentration and dividends, we find that the financial ratios of the companies have a larger impact on the dividends than the ownership concentration.

Suggestions for future research: The result of this study adds alot of curiosity to the future studies about this subject. Our suggestions to future research is to elaborate Agnblads (2001) theory about foreign ownership and how it might affect companies in Sweden. We also propose to research further about the Agency-theory and which effects it has on the Swedish listed firms since we have a concentrated ownership.

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to comprehend and analyse the impact of national culture on leadership within the healthcare industry.

Method: This is an exploratory research in which qualitative data have been used. Interviews have been held with employees at Elekta-Greece EPE, Athens in Greece. As for validity and reliability, the data for this study were collected from a real business case (Elekta) via Skype interviews and then the responses were transcribed and later analysed in relation to fundamental academic research in combination with our critical thinking.

Findings & Conclusions: By conducting this study, we discovered that culture can play a major role in the leadership behaviour for companies that operate within the healthcare industry on a global scale. Both national and corporate cultures influence the leader(s) and the employees of a company, either in a positive or a negative way. Cultural attributes, background, history, policies, rules and regulations are some of the factors that can be a game „‟changer‟‟ for the leadership of international companies. Those characteristics can affect work performance, job satisfaction, and the image of the company. Finally our conclusions also suggest that there is a difference between other industries and healthcare industry because of the power structure and the rigidness of the last one.

Originality & Value: This research is unique in its kind due to the fact that there is no similar case or literature that examines the impact of national culture on leadership for international healthcare companies, like Elekta. However, there has been some research conducted within this industry during the last years, covering the subject of marketing.

Limitations & Future Research: The limitation of this research is that it is a single case study so it cannot represent and be reflected for the whole healthcare industry. Also we could not acquire raw data from the parent company so we based the comparison on the data from Elekta-Greece and secondary data for the parent company. As for further investigation we suggest the expansion of this topic by conducting more case studies, add more countries at the same time in order to be able to create results that can be generalized for a successful cultural leadership on health-care industry.

Aim: The purpose of this study is to investigate the evaluation and conceptualization of service quality and its interactive impacts for customer satisfaction. This study provides some positive and constructive proposal to make up the service gap ,and provides preliminary results supported by SERVQUAL model to measure the mutual interactions between service quality and customer satisfaction. Service quality and customer satisfaction have been studied by the help of quality dimensions and some suggestions are offered for improving service quality.

Methods: The primary data have been collected through interviews and questionnaires. The secondary data has been collected through literature review. Case study approach is used to identify the current relationship between service quality and consumer satisfaction.

Result and Conclusions: We used five service quality dimensions to measure service quality and customer satisfaction. After survey is conducted, it has been clear that there are two dimensions (Empathy and Responsiveness) made a significant service gap between our target company and the key customer groups. The gap is the Differentiated service and the Service promptness.

We also give our suggestions to make up the gap.

Providing differentiated services.

Scheduling to the workload rather than to workers’ traditional schedules

Empowering as many staffs as possible to deal with the problems and providing initial training on how to solve most common problems

Contributions of the thesis / Value: We believe that this thesis will help Xingya Technical Communication Company (XTCC) to become more aware of service quality and constantly updated the service to overcome the customer complaints. And after the study, we find that the service quality dimensions (Empathy and Responsiveness) are the controversial issues. We think this study can provide some useful information for this research area.

Implications: This survey contributes to the topic both at practical and theoretical levels. We also put forward our suggestions for the target service provider in order to help them improve service quality in the future.

This paper provides a deep insight into the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) image scenario of the international buying firms and Bangladesh suppliers as well as identifies the challenges for building a positive supply chain (SC) CSR image for the suppliers of Bangladesh clothing industry. The contribution of this paper is that it improves knowledge of SC CSR image from the supplier’s as well as the buyer’s perspective. This paper also provides suggestions regarding improvement of Suppliers’ CSR image that can influence the SC CSR image.

This research study aims to evaluate the issues and factors for building a positive organizational CSR image that enables suppliers to create positive perception in relation to stakeholders. The study identified major challenges to improve CSR image for the suppliers. Based on the findings, it is suggested that suppliers need to improve in the following areas for changes of CSR image: (1) initiate education and measures to improve the employees’ understanding and importance of CSR; (2) develop a corporate culture to give priority in building positive CSR image; (3) develop link with educational institutions for educating middle managers on CSR and its effect on company image; (4) arrange short trainings for new workers to make them understand the concept of CSR and educate them on their own responsibilities as part of the organization; (5) establish platforms for sharing knowledge between suppliers to increase compliance.

Title: Paradoxes of Organizational Learning- How managers can maneuver organizational paradoxes of learning and further contribute to the organizations dynamic capability.

Level: Final assignment for bachelor’s Degree in business administration

Author: Leo Neuman and Oliver Crawford

Supervisor: Tomas Källquist

Date: 2018 – January

Aim: Previous research points out that today's organizations are faced with several paradoxes, i.e. conflicting demands that are both recurrent and lasting over time. It has therefore become vital for leaders to be able to handle these opposite pairs simultaneously by thinking both / and instead of either / or. Furthermore, some researchers have found that successful management of paradoxes seems to favor the organization's dynamic capabilities, which are the organizational processes, routines and skills that give leaders the ability to respond quickly and efficiently in fast-changing environments. The purpose of the study is to increase understanding of how leaders can handle organizational learning paradoxes and contribute to the organization's dynamic capability.

Method: The study assumes a hermeneutical and social constructivist perspective. The research effort is abductive and the research method qualitatively using unstructured and semi-structured interviews. The data collection and analysis of the study has been inspired by tools in grounded theory.

Result & Conclusions: The study suggests that the importance of communication permeates all forms of organizational learning and that participation contributes to the organizations dynamic capability.

Suggestions for future research: For further research, we propose that the link between communication and participation be investigated as there may be potential synergies.

Contribution of the thesis: From a theoretical perspective, this study contributes to identifying a broader relevance of communication in the management of organizational learning paradoxes and the importance of participation in the development of the organization's dynamic capability. From a practical perspective, the study can help leaders and other banking professionals, or other dynamic industries consider the importance of communication for all forms of organizational learning, and value participation as a contributing factor to the organization's dynamic capability.

The aim of this study is to increase the understanding of how value creation in municipal projects can be influenced by Public Value Management. A qualitative approach and semistructured interviews was used during the study. Our study indicates that the public value that is created through municipal project does show signs of Public Value Management despite the dact that the project leaders are not familiar with the term. The conclusion is that Public Value Management does not seem to be a prerequisite for the creation of public value. Although, it may very well contribute with positive infulences to the process of value creation.

Aim: Big audit firms have long been associated with higher audit quality, compared to smaller audit firms. Recent studies suggest that the higher audit fees from bigger audit firm is affected by market misuse rather than better audit quality. This study provides new empirical evidence between the comparison of big vs small audit firm, where audit fees are used as proxy for audit quality. Furthermore, this study investigates different litigation environment that could affect audit quality.

Method: This study uses an quantitative based method with an positivist, deductive approach, were earlier studies have had an impact on our hypotheses. Financial information from 2518 companies has been collected from Thomson Reuters Datastream.

Result & Conclusions: This study's result provides significant differences of audit quality between big and small audit firms in different risk environments. For this study, the audit quality relationship between big and small audit firms are equivalent for the European countries while audit quality between big and small audit firms in the US differ significantly.

Contribution of the thesis: This study leaves two contributions to the extent audit literature, in terms of empirical evidence of audit quality between big and small audit firms and unique research results of audit quality in different litigation environments. Furthermore, the results of this study creates incentives for practitioners to review the audit market for self interests and answer legal setters concerns about unbalanced audit markets.

Suggestions for future research: The study has been carried out without consideration of qualitative factors that may affect audit quality. It’s opening a space for comparative studies with an qualitative approach. It is also possible to expand the number of stock exchanges for a country or expand the number of countries in different risk environments.